


We’re Not So Different

by M (thelonelywarrior)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 04:19:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3195056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonelywarrior/pseuds/M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor was in for one of Missy’s game as he tried to save the universe from her evil plan, yet again. But accidents happened and both of them was stuck together, either by fate or by chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We’re Not So Different

He stood at the last row of the group of academy students. His eyes were widened in shock. Moments ago, he was a two thousand year old Time Lord.

“This is exciting!” gasped someone on his left. He looked to find a female academy student, who looked somewhat familiar. She was around few hundred years old, like a late-teen human form. Her dark brown hair was braided neatly at the back with a few strands of wavy ones dropping just in front of her face. Her eyes were sharp icy blue and  _she was looking right at him_. He nearly jumped.

“Don’t look so surprised, I wasn’t sure which part of our timeline was interrupted either,” She smiled.

He frowned, still absorbing the surrounding. He recognized the hall, the assembly hall for all the academy students, where they were trained to be Time Lords.  _But how? Gallifrey was lost. And why was he in the middle of little Time Lords? Wait - little?_

He looked down. He was clad in the academy uniform, just like the girl who talked to him. His hands… they were… He turned his wrist a bit to look into his own reflection from the shiny cuff of the uniform.

A shocked face of a boy almost as old as the girl next to him, silver-haired and pale blue eyes. “The eyebrows are still intact,” whispered the girl, standing very close to him, “I have to say you look rather lovely even with your age reversed.”

And he remembered…

He was chasing Missy through the time vortex for some awful plan of hers. Their TARDIS-es tumbled through a crack and there they went.

He frowned at the girl next to her. “You!”

“Silence!” a voice of authority rang from the middle of the hall. Some of the junior Time Lords shifted their heads slightly to give them some unsympathetic look.

The Doctor gave Missy a nudge and pretended it was her who yelled. He was not planning to be the centre of attention, not when he had not figure out what was going on. Missy pouted her lips and gave the crowd a sweet-but-evil smile. The assembly went on as usual.  _Time Lords, they could be a bit slow at times_ , The Doctor thought.

“Where are we, exactly?” The Doctor hissed.

“I’m not going to tell you, not after what you did,” Missy shot him an angry look. The Doctor sighed and fidgeted his time through the assembly. He was not paying attention at all, not that he ever did. And when everyone started to move away, The Doctor’s attention was pulled back.

“Good day there,” someone called, “I’ve never seen you two before, how do I address you?”

The Doctor looked at Missy for a brief moment and realized who was the talker.

“I’m Missy,” Missy smiled politely.

The boy, slightly older than them smirked, “Nice to meet you. I’m The Master, and this is my friend,” He turned to show another boy of his age, “The Doctor - well, at least we are called that, and we added _The_  for the dramatic effect.”

“Hey, nice to meet you,” smiled the Younger Doctor, “Nice stun there, Missy. Not many who is bold enough to interrupt the assembly.” He gave Missy a sweet smile, ignoring The Doctor.

Missy smiled and subtly winked at The Doctor.

“And you are -?” The Master noticed The Doctor.

“I - I’m - Call me Theta,” The Doctor stuttered.

“Cool name, Theta,” Younger Doctor commented.

“Well, good to know a few brave souls among these - I mean, we work on interesting projects, and if you’re in for this kind of things, we can show you around,” The Master said, “It’s usually only me and The Doctor, though.”

The Doctor gave him a casual smile, “Yeh, sure - but me and Missy has certain issues to settle now, so - yea, perhaps, next time.” He grabbed Missy’s arm and signalled her to leave the conversation.

_No, I’m Missy and you must obey me. This conversation is interesting._

The Doctor realized Missy was using her telepathic and he tried to communicate.  _No, not now._

Missy must have thought about something, because she nodded to the two boys and walked out of the hall with The Doctor. The Master and Younger Doctor gazed at her and gave her a Gallifreyan goodbye wave.

“Stop flirting with yourself,” The Doctor hissed the moment they arrived in a deserted corridor.

“Ha ha, let’s be plain, it’s you who’s flirting with me. Did you see how he smile at me?” Missy looked into distance, reminiscing what had just happened, “Oh, what a sweet smile he had… I always liked that smile.”

The Doctor was half blushing and half fuming, because Missy was not totally wrong at all. “Alright, alright, that doesn’t matter. What - on Gallifrey - is happening now?”

“I told you I’m not telling you.”

“I helped you to get attention of ‘The’ Doctor, didn’t I?” The Doctor spit sarcastically.

“Hmm… you’ve got your point,” Missy thought.

“And?”

“Not telling you.”

The Doctor yelled in agony and stormed out of the corridor.

*****

The next thing he saw was Missy joining in a very cheerful conversation with The Master and Younger Doctor. They were sitting outdoor, admiring the scenery of Gallifrey. The Doctor looked across and realized how much he missed this place. The feel, the taste, the wind, the sight… everything. But something was missing.

“Theta.”

The Master turned up in front of him, without him noticing when. He looked at the boy whom he had ran through the planet with. _Where was him in his timeline? Was he already start to go mad? Had he already been planning something evil?_

“You can join us if you want, you know?”

“Nah, wouldn’t want to interrupt your time with The Doctor…” The Doctor mumbled.

“Our friendship is not something you can interrupt at will, Theta. But surprisingly, you do have a certain vibe of him… That’s interesting.”

The Doctor looked at him, calculating. He was not sure how good was The Master at this age, in terms of his skills, and he did not want him to access him or Missy. Missy would do fine, she was an advanced version of The Master, more skilled - but him, he was not the brightest student to graduate at the first place.

“I’m glad to hear that,” The Doctor replied, “what’re you doing now, exactly?”

“I wouldn’t have tell you if it is something fun, would I?” The Master laughed.

_Nice, just nice, Missy and The Master, they are just one of a kind, aren’t they?_  The Doctor grumbled under his breath.

“But here’s an invitation, are you up for it, or not?”

The Doctor gave it a thought and decided to join in the ‘fun’.

That night, they sneaked through the city and out of Capitol. He remembered doing that with The Master when they were young. Missy was with the group as they dodged every possible security around the academy. She would stare at The Doctor in deep thought sometimes, and looked away when he looked back. He still need to know, what was she planning in her head, and that was why he was stuck with his younger self. Younger Doctor, however, was not The Doctor’s favourite. Despite his vanity along his generations, he was not at all pleased with this junior Time Lord who kept him away from Missy.  _Was he that annoying?_  The Doctor wondered. _Can’t he sense I have more important things to do?_

The Doctor concluded he was a bit of a thick head during those years in the end. He was quiet most of the time and let The Master and Younger Doctor do the talking, which did not include him most of the time. Missy was somehow in most of their conversation. The Doctor groaned.

The Master seemed to notice The Doctor at some point that he announced, “Doctor, let’s go drink with the Shobogans.”

“Missy, do come along,” Younger Doctor cheered but The Master gave him a look before saying, “I think Missy and Theta would be too junior for that. We will go and see if we can bring back something more suitable. Stay here.”

The Master walked past The Doctor and gave his back a pat. The two boys left the two of them at the brown river, reflecting each and every stars that could be seen from the sky. The sky was not as clear as Earth, but it was home to The Doctor and that was enough.

“What do you think of us?” Missy broke the ice.

The Doctor looked at her sideways, “You are the one who’s not talking to me.”

Missy slapped his head teasingly, “No, I mean - us - as in them.”

“Oh, them.”

“Us, literally.”

“How old were we?”

“Near graduation,” Missy sighed.

“You and I know clearly know how it was like, so save your breath.”

“I can’t remember any of these, like - there’s an extra two friends in our lives, considering we are existing in our own timeline,” Missy was tapping the water in the lake.

“Please, you and I, are not our friends. Something is obviously wrong and you’re not telling me anything.”

“That’s because I don’t know,” Missy giggled, “Isn’t it fun? For once, I don’t know.”

The Doctor grunted.

“You sound really old in such a young body, you know.”

“That’s because I  _AM_  older. I’m supposed to be two thousand over years old, if you remember correctly, not some pretty young girl pressing flowers on a meadow.”

“That’s rude to call people that - except the pretty part.” Missy smirked. The Doctor frowned at his careless use of vocabulary.

“But - but we can’t be here forever, can we? I don’t want to go through the academy again.”

“Look at the bright side, you might do better than 51% this time.”

“I still have my life, somewhere, some time, away from here.”

“Don’t you miss Gallifrey?” Missy said quietly suddenly, playing with Schlenk Blossom she found somewhere among the red grass. She passed one and shoved it into The Doctor’s hand. He looked at it, felt its texture and smelled it from the depth of his lungs. He sure missed this place.

He silenced.

“I know how you feel, Doctor,” Missy laid back on the red grass and gazed at the sky, “It’s just that, I have no idea what happened actually. I’m truly sorry for leading us into this.”

The Doctor looked at her suspiciously, “Truly sorry? Are you sure you didn’t use that word too strongly?”

“Believe whatever you want,” Missy ignored him, “I’m more concerned about what’s going to happen.”

Now that was something The Doctor was interested. “What do you mean?”

“If this is the timeline we went through - if this is the exact time line, Doctor - do you remember what happen after we graduated?”

The Doctor looked at her, “We ran away?”

“Yes,” Missy hinted.

“So? I had a great life after that, honestly.”

Missy’s face looked all serious all of sudden. “That’s when everything between you and me, gone different ways.”

“I believe you and I are already quite different during the Academy days.”

“Say what you like,” Missy shrugged and sighed.

“Maybe we can fix the later part where you went bonkers.”

“Excuse me, I’m still here, so be more discrete in your choice of word.”

“You know it’s true. ” The Doctor threw the blossom into the lake. Missy pouted.

“Let’s say that in this timeline, we could probably still be here on Gallifrey, and grow up again.”

“There will be four of us growing up together, that’s not going to happen. I’ve never been into a time vortex that reduce my age - Ah! What’s going on here!” The Doctor was frustrated.

“Hush, Doctor. I’m sure you and I will do something about it. They’re coming back.” Missy hissed.  _Pretend you and I had a nice chat and do as I told, Doctor._

The Doctor sighed and smiled awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, but all we’ve got were some drinks,” Younger Doctor panted, passing them some drinks.

“Doesn’t matter,” Missy smiled, “As long as we had a good time.”

“Yes, that’s important.” The Master replied.

*****

The Doctor counted the days they were on this planet. The Master and Younger Doctor graduated from the Academy and gained their rightful title as Time Lords.On the day when Missy and The Doctor went to congratulate the two of them, The Master brought them to a barn, the barn Doctor grew up in.

“As you can see, once we attained our title, we could access different technology and such and that’s what I’ve been telling you, about the time we are waiting for,” The Master told Missy.

Younger Doctor smirked smugly, “Yea, I think it will work nicely, with Master and I producing it with our own hands.”

Missy nodded. The Doctor was puzzled.

“We built a time vortex manipulator, Doctor,” Younger Doctor said, looked at The Doctor.

“What -” The Doctor was shocked at the address, “How did you -?”

“Do you think you’re that stupid?” Younger Doctor laughed, “But The Master was the one who notice first, I have to give credit to him.”

The Master beamed, “You’d have know about it one way or another, even without me telling you anyway. It was Missy who validated my observation.”

The Doctor turned to look at Missy.

“I reckoned the only way to bring us out of here was some technology we could get our hands on. But so far, we could only rely on someone who have the ability to manipulate time and space, and our current selves are too junior for it, so the moment I saw Master and Doctor, it clicked!” Missy went on with her explaining, like a bright young girl giving the class a tutorial. The Doctor looked at her in awe.

“And none of you bother to tell me?” The Doctor yelped.

“Because you are thick enough to not realize anything,” Younger Doctor laughed.  _Great, just great, being mocked by your younger self._

“We didn’t know if we can actually do that, that’s why we make it a secret, even from Missy,” The Master comforted The Doctor, “But now, I think it is ready. This machine should be able to send both of you back to your own timeline in the vortex and by that transport you through the actual space-time fabric. My hypothesis is that, through that, your age could be reversed back to whatever it was, according to how long you’ve been travelling. The mechanics are largely basic spaceship tinkering, but it was The Doctor who piece the puzzle together.” The Master gave Younger Doctor’s shoulder a pat.

“Thanks so much,” Missy said tearfully. The Doctor mumbled a thanks.

“I thought you weren’t planning to leave this timeline,” The Doctor told Missy.

“I was tempted to do that, but I know better than that.”

“We would be - different, you know, far apart, out there.”

“As a matter of fact,” Missy sighed, “ we are not so different, actually.”

“I gather that the two of us, somewhere in the future, might face a different fate and things may go horribly wrong,” The Master hopped into the conversation, “but I think that’s why we need to cherish our friendship more, when there’s an opportunity.”

“Yea,” Younger Doctor hooked his arm around Master’s shoulder, “Go, and prove that our friendship is not that light.”

The Doctor and Missy looked at the two boys and thought.  _We were that close, huh?_

“Well, we better initiate the machine soon, before someone find us doing this. The council was not always very approving when it comes to creativity.” Younger Doctor blurted. The Master nodded and led Missy and The Doctor into a confined area behind an equipment. Younger Doctor jiggled some of the buttons and The Master was standing with him side-by-side, pulling levers and examining the readings on a screen. He did most of the calculations, while Younger Doctor did most of the manipulations.

The Doctor and Missy hold their hands together and said, “Thank you” before finding themselves shrunk and compacted, transporting through time vortex…

*****

The next thing they knew, they were on a strange planet. The Doctor gasped for breath to find himself in his magician’s outfit, and next to him, Missy looked stunned, back in her purple skirt.

“I’m me!” The Doctor yelled, checking if he lose any of his limbs.

“Yes, you are you…” Missy pinned her hair up nicely and put on her hat.

“You should braid them sometimes,” The Doctor murmured. Missy shot him a look and smiled, “I might learn that, one day.”

“I can do that for you,” The Doctor teased.

“Not today, Doctor.” Missy cleared her throat.

“Right.”

“So, we’re still friends then?”

“You and I know the answer. But first thing first, we have quite a few mess to clean up.” The Doctor said, looking upon an explosion that just happened a few miles away from them.

“Oh, that,” Missy overlooked the situation, “Oops.”


End file.
